CFP: Medieval Readers and Devotion (9/30/06; collection)

full name / name of organization:

uselmanns_at_rhodes.edu

contact email:

uselmanns@rhodes.edu

READERS, READING AND RECEPTION IN DEVOTIONAL LITERATURE AND PRACTICE(Essay Collection)

We are currently soliciting proposals for essay-length studies aboutreaders, reading, and reception in devotional literature and practice,with particular interest in England in the later Middle Ages. Thiscollection of essays draws on current scholarly interest in medievalreaders, reading, and reception that extends across such disciplinarybounds as art history, architecture, social history, and literaturestudies. We seek proposals for papers that investigate a wide varietyof approaches to and examples of devotional readers, reading orreception in the later Middle Ages.

Papers in the collection may look at the intersection between devotionand reading or reception issues in general, as well as explore morespecifically how these issues are complicated by particularcircumstances such as audience or gender. Essays that examine readingmodels and theories, cultural and historical practices, and genderissues are also encouraged. Possible avenues of exploration include,but are not limited to:

* Connections between devotional practices and reading practices* Representations of readers and reading in devotional texts* Literary production and reception of devotional texts and images* Manuscripts and early books as devotional objects and as the spur to devotional practices* Individual readers and patrons of devotional texts

Please submit a proposal or abstract of no more than 500 words by September 30,2006 by email, fax or regular mail. Completed papers will be due summer 2007.